


To-Tashan

by catty_the_spy



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Artistic License - Biology, Children In Danger, Gen, Kid Fic, Minor Character Death, Natural Disasters, Post-Apocalypse, Telepathy, illogical decision making
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-08-08 13:01:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16429868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catty_the_spy/pseuds/catty_the_spy
Summary: Worlds end every day on the fringes of the Federation. While they wait for help to come, a Vulcan bonds with his human ward, and strives to understand her and himself.





	To-Tashan

**Author's Note:**

> originally for the h/c bingo prompt "pain" many moons ago. There's a stealth cameo by a canon character in here, but otherwise it's wall to wall OCs

  
Tevek wakes to pain. Only some of it is his own. To his left, Komihn-kan is whispering “please” and shaking, quite clearly in distress.

“Calm yourself,” he says.

Of course, this encourages Komihn-kan to cry more heavily. She drapes herself across him. This puts pressure on his injuries. Tevek dulls the pain with brief mental effort. Komihn-kan, like others of her kind, requires physical contact. Her continued physical and mental health is important.

He waits approximately thirty seconds before displacing her.

They are in the shelter of an old bridge. While he was unconscious, Komihn-kan attempted to care for him. His pack is opened, the blanket over his legs, and there are bandages on the most obvious surface injuries. It did not occur to her to use disinfectant.

“You did very well,” he says.

He knows very little about human children, but brief post-crisis encounters and observation have provided an acceptable platform. Verbal reassurance, simplified instructions, and a great deal of physical contact are all required. Komihn-kan often seeks such contact on her own. No doubt this is instinctive behavior.

“How long have we been here?”

According to his internal clock it has been six standard hours.

“I dunno,” Komihn-kan says. “It was really bright out and now it’s kinda orange.”

He nods.

Standing is painful. Walking is painful. He will not be able to carry her.

“We will camp here.”

The child is clingy and reluctant to perform her usual tasks. Tevek anticipates “nightmares”.

 

Tevek met Komihn-kan in the ruins of Settlement Eighteen. He’d followed the highway from Settlement Thirty, offering assistance where he could. It was his hope that Starfleet’s training facility would be least affected by the disaster, and if not, Settlement One would be a logical base for the Interplanetary Aid Association and/or the Nostran Red Cross. There was no reason to stay in the east.

Komihn-kan had been trapped with three other juveniles and the corpse of her guardian. Tevek had assisted in the rescue. There was no official aid system active in the city. Survivors gathered in the hospital and its adjacent public schools. Conditions were poor.

While he was there, two infants died due to what the volunteers claimed was a lack of affection.

“Not the emotion, only the physical contact. They need to be touched frequently – preferably held – but we don’t have the time.”

There was a Vulcan there, T’Nak, a physician, who was attempting to form a telepathic link with each child, as her mind was more readily available than her hands. The helpfulness of these attempts was uncertain, but she persisted.

One of Komihn-kan’s siblings, near death and only partially coherent, had begged Tevek to “save my sister too, she’s only little, I don’t want to leave her alone”

To soothe the boy, Tevek had given his word to do so. T’Nak insisted he keep this promise, and Tevek, perhaps illogically, could not disagree.

The other children rescued with the girl were dead.

 

His short-range communications device receives a signal from Settlement Fourteen. After five days, he packs their supplies. He is not fully healed; deep meditation has preserved him thus far, but he needs to enter a healing trance. When they reach Settlement Fourteen he will seek assistance.

Komihn-kan has a backpack, pink, that holds their hygiene items, small supplies, her eating utensils, and comfort items. Anything large or heavy, Tevek carries.

Komihn-kan holds the fabric of his jacket in one hand. She is reluctant to travel.

“While we may encounter other survivors,” he says, “I doubt we will encounter dangerous wildlife. If you agree to return when called and to stay within my line of sight, you may run ahead.”

She does not speak. Anxiety causes her to retreat to silence. He does not know if this is an individual or species-wide response.

“Do you have your electric lantern?”

He can clearly see the item in question, as it is both large and hanging from her backpack. Nevertheless, he waits for her to nod and show it to him. When prompted she shows him her tied shoes and the collapsible bowl she eats from, as well as her full bottle of water, hanging from her backpack as well. This routine is good for the child’s mental health.

“Let us depart.”

He puts a hand on her shoulder – physical contact is as important as hydration and routine.

They walk.

 

“What’s your name, sweetie?”

Komihn-kan did not answer. She hadn’t spoken since they left Settlement Eighteen, but the woman leading the survivors in Settlement Nine seemed determined to convince her.

She had been most generous. Settlement Nine was flush with supplies, and full of survivors from smaller nearby communities. They were sending out daily distress calls, but as of yet had no replies.

“She has not shared her name,” Tevek said.

“Poor thing. Well, he has to call you something, doesn’t he? My name is Sarah.”

“You’ve got to give her a routine,” Sarah told him, “even if it’s a little one. She needs something normal. Something she can rely on.”

She also thought it unwise of him to take the girl with him, but she did not try to talk him out of it. Unattended children were everywhere.

Tevek volunteered to provide physical contact and care to the most vulnerable children when he was not otherwise occupied. He had no further objections to his goals.

 

They meet a family in possession of a small vehicle, who agree to take them to Settlement Fourteen.

“I’m glad we found you,” the patriarch says – a man of sixty years of age. His daughters are both single parents. One is a recent widow.

Komihn-kan is allowed to play with their children.

The women are concerned when they see the scratches on her face and learn that she and Tevek had been attacked.

“If the assailants are on their way to Settlement Nine, they will no longer pose a threat to anyone. Their police force is quite robust.”

“Have they got the Red Cross?”

“When I left they had yet to receive aid.”

“We need a news feed,” the eldest woman says. “I hate that the satellites are down. Feels like we’re back in the Stone Age.”

Her sister rolls her eyes. Tevek decides against explaining the difference between their current predicament and Earth’s “stone age”.

“I wonder how things are going in Fourteen.”

“I do not know. Conditions are likely…adequate.”

This seems to disappoint them.

“I suppose we can always leave,” says the patriarch. “Head to Nine, see if it’s as good as you say.”

The plan seems logical. Settlement Nine is seeking to organize survivors. It is secure. It has enough emergency supplies to sustain several major settlements.

In his luggage he has a recording of Settlement Nine’s status, size, and needs. He will deliver this recording to the Nostran Emergency Management Division.

Komihn-kan returns to his side, tiring of her companions.

She smiles at the women. “Do you want to see my bear?”

She spends several minutes extolling the virtues of her favorite comfort object. The human family seems the find her behavior familiar and emotionally satisfying. Perhaps their own children do the same.

Eventually Komihn-kan tires of talking and insists on being held. Tevek obliges. She finds the act comforting.

He touches the back of her neck in passing, long enough to gain an impression of her mind. She is greatly improved. Her mind, when they met, was a disaster. Trauma often has that effect.

 

“Consider the health of the surviving Vulcan children,” T’Nak said, when discussing her difficulties in the hospital. “Many became comatose. Their underdeveloped minds were not capable of surviving psychic backlash on that scale. A third died. Of the remaining, half are still receiving treatment from mind healers.”

Many of their healers were also dead. Suffering from broken bonds and psychic backlash, they nevertheless bonded or attempted to bond with the children in their care. As their patients died, one after the other, their overburdened minds buckled under the strain.

T’Nak was setting herself up for the same sort of injury, but in her opinion the risk was acceptable.

 

The off-ramp leading into Settlement Fourteen has been blockaded, and armed sentries were waiting to meet them.

“Could be Starfleet, or Planetary Defense.”

It was not.

The man who approaches the vehicle is armed with a projectile weapon. He points it at them before shouting “State your business!”

“We’re just looking for someplace safe,” the eldest woman says, while her sister begins to retreat to the rear of the vehicle. The children have grown quiet. One of them – the youngest – was asleep. The other four are staring out of the window with naked curiosity.

“City’s closed. Get out.”

“Why?” the patriarch asks. “Is there some sort of disease? Anything we can do to help?

“Is the national guard with you? Or the Red Cross?”

The weapon clicks in the man’s hands.

“Whoa!” the elder female says, and raises her hands. This would do nothing to deflect a projectile. “We need help, just like everyone else. We got our kids in the back. We need to know where to go.”

The man glances at the rear of the vehicle, where the younger woman is coaxing the children to lay on the floor. Komihn-kan is calm in Tevek’s arms. She was beginning to pick up on the human tension, but Tevek’s controlled reaction was what she imitated.

The man’s weapon wobbles through his fit of indecision. Finally, he speaks.

“No one’s here yet, friend or foe. We want no outsiders, understand? Find somewhere else.”

As they return to the empty highway, Tevek makes a record of the settlement’s odd behavior. Response teams will need to tread carefully.

 

By motor vehicle it will take two days to reach Settlement Nine. Tevek suggests to the family that they set up camp during the night rather than risk an accident on the damaged roadway. He also requests their assistance with regards to the healing trance that he must enter if he wishes to continue.

“I will not be able to return to full consciousness on my own,” he says. The adults appear to be uneasy. “I will need one of you to make physical contact – a slap, preferably. I suggest you wake me before you leave, as Komihn-kan and I will not be travelling with you.”

“What?”  
“I don’t understand; you want us to slap you?”  
“Where are you going if not to Settlement Nine?”

“A healing trance is essentially a coma; it is difficult to rouse oneself from such a state. This is what must be done if I am to heal.”

“But where are you going? You said yourself that Settlement Nine is safe, and I can’t see why you’d drag that poor girl through a whole…through all of this, if there’s somewhere safe for you to stay.”

“I am going to the Starfleet training facility to seek aid for the outlying settlements. The child is coming because she is my responsibility.”

He lets them express their doubts, but nothing they say convinces him to do otherwise. For the rest of the ride he meditates, stirring only to engage with Komihn-kan when she needs his company. It is tiring to suppress his pain for such an extended amount of time.

When they stop for the night, Tevek takes Komihn-kan through their normal routine. She’s cheerful, happy to have companions her age.

“I will be difficult to wake in the morning,” he tells her. “Do not be alarmed. Tomorrow we will continue to travel towards the sun, and to do that I must get a great deal of rest. Do you understand?”

“Are you _really_ sleepy?”

“Yes.”

The child’s uncertainty is plainly apparent, but she accepts his promise that he will not sleep “forever and ever and turn colors”, just as she has accepted so many of his promises. She has come to trust him.

“Yuk muhl!” she says and squeezes her comfort object. She only begins to relax when Tevek settles as if to meditate. It is a familiar image for her. She matches his breathing as she does every night and is quickly asleep.

 

“Mommy used to kiss me goodnight,” she said, while Tevek assisted in zipping her into her sleep sac.

“Did she?”

“Mhm. She said ‘g’night sleep tight don’t let the bedbugs bite’, and she tucked me in and kissed me right here.” She tapped a spot in the middle of her forehead.

“There are no bed bugs on this planet.”

“But that’s what you’re supposed to say.”

“For humans, perhaps, but not for Vulcans.”

“What do Vulcan’s say?”

He taught her to say ‘sleep well’, and was then obliged to teach her ‘good morning’, ‘hello’, ‘good bye’, and the traditional greeting “Live Long and Prosper.” By the end of the lesson she was yawning, almost entirely asleep.

Tevek placed a hand on her head, trying to gauge her well being. She sighed deeply and smiled, comforted.

 

“D’you think Robbie will like Miss Sarah?”

“It seems likely.”

“I think so. I think anybody would like Miss Sarah. I bet she gives him chocolate. Do you like chocolate?”

“I have never had chocolate.”

“Never ever?”

“Indeed.”

“I’d give you my chocolate, if I had chocolate.”

“Thank you.”

“That’s what you’re s’posed to do, sharing. You share with your friends, and you share with people who don’t feel good, and you share with your family, and you share with your class, and the Federation shares with everybody. That’s what you’re s’posed to do. Do you have anything to share?”

“One could say that I am currently sharing my company.”

“Huh. I’m gonna run to that big stick, okay?”

“I do not think that would be wise.”

“Please?” She drew the vowel sounds into a whine.

“You must wait until we are no longer on a bridge.”

“But Tevek!”

He doesn’t respond. She makes more whining noises, but she eventually submits.

“I’m bored.”

“Perhaps you should sing a song.”

He has learned that she knows a variety of songs, some more complex than others. She is also prone to creating new ones in response to mundane encounters or commands.

At present her choice is “singin a song, singin a song, I’m singing”. Tevek endures this, as it is preferable to whining or disobedience.

Soon she transitions to singing from memory. “One two three four five people, that’s my family. One two three for five people, that’s mine my family-ly. Tevek, is my family still five? I mean, five people? There was Mama, Bobby, Margo, Mr Puss-puss, Frankie, only Mr Puss got lost and that wasn’t five anymore. Well, me makes five. But now there’s Mama, Bobby, Margo, Frankie, Tevek, Mr Bear, and me. That’s more than five. Especially if you count Mr Puss-puss.”

“Including your household feline would adjust the count to eight.”

Komihn-kan dutifully counts this on her fingers and agrees that he is correct. So she sings “one two three four five six seven eight people are in my family; one two three four five six seven eight”.

Not far from the bridge the highway divides. Tevek announces a rest period. Komihn-kan divests herself of her pack and runs circles in the grass.

There are three distress signals nearby – settlement Twenty-Four, along Exit Nine A, and Settlements Three and Forty-Eight, along the main highway.

It is not feasible to visit all of them. Settlement Three will likely have supplies, but the route to Settlement Twenty-Four will be safer and in better condition.

Komihn-kan tires of running and demands to be lifted. She claims that her feet are tired. By this she means that she is tired of walking and may be in mild discomfort. Now that he has recovered, Tevek will be able to carry her as he used to. This will allow him to maintain his speed and will prevent her becoming overtired.

It also provides necessary physical contact. The way the human body responds to gentle or “affectionate” touch is fascinating. In his arms she relaxes completely. Her heart rate slows, her mind quiets. Her feet are still “tired”, but awareness of that discomfort is lessened. She cannot feel the weight of his thoughts against hers to receive reassurance and emotional satisfaction. Instead she finds that comfort in this act – in resting her head on his shoulder, hooking her feet together behind his back and clasping her hands behind his neck. What she cannot find mind-to-mind becomes evident here.

He stands motionless, allowing her to seek comfort while he plans their next move.

“Eight is almost ten,” she mumbles. She’s begun to doze.

“Indeed it is.”

“You go eight nine ten and then you have all your fingers.”

“You are correct.”

“Daddy and Bear and Me.”

Komihn-kan relaxes completely into sleep.

Their supplies would hold, but Komihn-kan was more fragile than he was. A Vulcan, alone, could go longer without food or water in moments of crisis. Immediately after the attack, he’d prioritized her food and water needs, because humans did not have the fine control over their biology that Vulcans possessed; juveniles, such as Komihn-kan, even less so.

Their supplies would hold, barring unfortunate circumstance. But what if they did not?

And more practically, two settlements were more important than one.

Tevek collects Komihn-kan’s "back-pack" and makes for the main highway.

 

By the time Komihn-kan woke they’d reached another gap in the highway.

Tevek has crafted a walking stick from a downed limb, and he uses it to feel his way downwards, testing for weak places in the asphalt and concrete. Komihn-kan shifts only slightly, and Tevek pauses his decent.

“You must remain still until we reach the bottom.”

“Okay,” she says, only partially awake. She turns her head until her nose is touching his neck.

It is fascinating, to Tevek, the ways in which Vulcan and Human children are alike.

She is awake enough to tighten her grip, which Tevek finds acceptable.

The upward path will be more difficult, but turning back is no longer an option. There is smoke rising behind them. To investigate would be unwise. To conceal themselves beneath the highway would be equally unwise. At the moment they are descending into a creek bed dammed by debris. Lingering there for any length of time risks injury. Tevek cannot swim, and, whatever her skills, Komihn-kan is unlikely to leave him.

“Daddy w’sa smell?”

“You are talking in your sleep,” Tevek says.

“Okay.”

A motor vehicle is approaching. Tevek looks for it only briefly. He cannot lose his footing.

“Holy Hannah!” a human male exclaims. Another says “Someone get a rope. Or a ladder. Do we have a rope ladder?”  
“Both of you calm down.”

Tevek glances upwards, but the speakers are too far from the edge of the opposing highway.

“They’re really going at it.”  
“Can we do anything?”  
“No that’s not long enough, we have to reach the creek bed.”  
“How many coming this way?”  
“Be grateful there’s no weapon’s fire. Kovac, get me those binoculars.”

Komihn-kan’s mental presence is calm. She remains only partially conscious, soothed by his presence and steady pulse. The voices are beginning to rouse her, so he reminds her once more to be still.

“Are there people?” she asks.

“It appears that there are.”

“Are they nice?”

“We will discover shortly.”

"I don't like mean people. I don't want any more mean people."

There is a possibility that he is influencing her telepathically. Intentional Vulcan telepathic influence on humans is well documented; unintentional telepathic influence, therefore -  
"I got it I got it!"  
-under the purview of a Vulcan's mental control. As Tevek is still suffering from mental injury-  
"Who are they even fighting?"  
-brought about by the destruction of his planet, as well as physically exhausted, it is possible that he subconsciously-  
"Here! Hook it to the truck or something, does it matter?"  
-responded to Komihn-kan's acceptance of him as a guardian, his own feelings of responsibility, and her need for support, something which a Vulcan child would naturally receive through telepathic contact. Fascinating. It won't make up for the physiological response T'Nak was attempting to manage, but it would be useful nonetheless. Perhaps it would enable her to respond more rapidly to their distress. Or maybe it would merely heighten the damage to T'Nak's mind when the children died despite her best efforts. He will need to meditate on this issue.

"Hey! Hey down there! We've got a rope. Can you reach it?"  
"Are you alone? Is there anyone else with you?"

He does not respond until he reaches the rope. "We are alone," he says, using the rope and his walking stick to assist in his climb. The rubble beneath his feet shifts after every step.

"Holy shit," they say, after they've assisted him to the top - to the relative safety of the intact highway a short distance away. "You're a Vulcan."

"I am."

"Holy shit."

"Are you from Settlement Three or Settlement Forty-Eight?"

A man steps forward. "Both. Shi-uh, I'm Chenko. Where are-what's going on back there?"

Tevek turns. Now he can see the fires, and the black smoke, and the small figures of human beings running back and forth. "I do not know."

"Human?"

Tevek turns back to the small crowd of people - three women, three men, one "pick-up", and Chenko, their leader.

Ah yes, Komihn-kan. She is fully awake; merely reluctant to greet strangers she is unsure of. There are no children present to relieve a portion of her wariness.

Tevek does not respond to the question of Komihn-kan's species. He asks her quietly if she desires to walk, and when she responds by clinging more tightly, he asks for transportation.

His emotional control will contribute to her own.

 

Komihn-kan, when anxious, proved eager to play a game she called "how do you say?"

"I'll tell sa-kai how to count to ten in Vulcan!" she declared. "He won't call me stupid anymore."

She frequently spoke of her siblings in this manner: as if they were alive, and merely elsewhere. Before assuming custody, Tevek had ensured she understood their deaths, as best she was able. He had taken her to see her brother before his death and provided comfort to the best of his ability. He had searched for surviving relatives as best he was able, and when none were revealed, he fulfilled his oath to the boy.

In fact, Komihn-kan did not speak of her family in the expected way. Tevek had taught her the Vulcan manner of referring to family, and when she was distressed she used those terms to consciously or unconsciously distance herself from them.

The brother that had 'called her stupid' had shielded her from the sight of her mother's decaying body, kept her alive as long as he was able, and saw to her care before his own death.

Komihn-kan struggled with the memory of him. Bobby had diligently cared for her, died, and left her behind. Sa-kai was the one who teased her, did not want to play, and was often 'not very nice'.

Tevek had little knowledge of human psychology, let alone the psychology of children. What was normal? What was a healthy response? He knew only that blunt reminders of her brother's demise served only to upset her.

Instead, Tevek hummed, an audial response important to their communication, and said "I am certain that if he were here, he would be suitably impressed."

 

 

Settlements Three and Forty-Eight are in close cooperation, by token of proximity. A professor in Settlement Three communicated with a colleague in Settlement Forty-Eight by short range radio, and the system had survived the initial attack. They are well equipped, and they have had no communication with any outside organization - to include Starfleet and the Federation.

"The trainees haven't even come this way," Professor Chau says, from his small office in Settlement Three. "We sent a team out yesterday to establish contact. I’m hoping we can set up some kind of analogue relay between the largest population centers. If you're willing to wait, you'll be able to pass your information along."

"This was our pet project," Dr. Trinh explains via radio. "Phone lines and similar structures are antiquated, but in emergencies like this, having a communication method that doesn't involve satellites is important. This style of radio requires even less infrastructure; and after the attack, when most advanced technology was offline, it only took us hours to connect with each other."

"It would have been sooner," Chau says, "but I was out of the office."

Lodging is in short supply, but they find an office that is easily cleared for Tevek and Komihn-kan to use.

"We're camping inside," she tells her stuffed comfort object, "so remember to potty in the _toilet_."

There are children in the building of a comparable size, and so long as Tevek is in view she is eager to amuse herself with them. Their minders are exhausted, but in good spirits.

“Kids hold up better than most people think,” a woman says, seeking either commiseration or to provide parenting advice.

Tevek was not intimately familiar with the parenting culture of Nostras, but he felt obligated to reply. “I have been informed that stability and affection are the most important factors.”

“Well, you’ll find plenty of stability here.”

The interactions between the children seem excessively rough to Tevek, but the other caretakers do not seem to mind.

 

While they rest here, Tevek shares the information he has gathered. The leaders of this town are eager to make contact with Settlement Nine, and troubled by the news of Settlement Fourteen. They are sympathetic to the plights of Settlement Eighteen. They accept his notes and the recordings he's gathered.

Eventually they must discuss Settlement Thirty, his starting place.

"When I left, the surviving population was four Vulcans, three female, one male; ten humans, four of them juveniles; one Andorian; and one Flaxian who may now be deceased."

"Fifteen people? Including yourself?"

"That is correct."

The humans exchanged looks of distress. There had been approximately one thousand inhabitants before the incident.

Tevek had sent assistance to Settlement Thirty after confirming the status of Settlement Six, the nearest community of any decent size. To the best of his knowledge, the survivors of Settlement Thirty had relocated. But there were other settlements out of contact, or in chaos, or in desperate need of emergency assistance, and it had seemed logical to continue on. He had been attacked several times, even after acquiring Komihn-kan. He had not encountered any sign of planetwide assistance.

The information he shares causes the town leadership a great deal of emotional distress, as well as concern. Any disturbance great enough to keep the Federation from coming to their aid would be one they were powerless to combat.

They dismiss him to discuss the matter further.

Tevek goes to the child monitoring facility to collect Komihn-Kan.

Like the city council, she is in distress, but her concerns are easily dealt with.

"You left! You left without me."

Tevek had assured her before his brief departure that he would be returning. To Komihn-Kan, whose family has died, and who lacks the ability to sense him telepathically, such reassurance would not have been enough.

Tevek takes her to a small garden near the edge of the settlement. It is quiet there; he will be able to meditate in peace. He allows her to cling to him. The contact and the solitude bring her comfort. He controls his breathing and hers calms to mirror it. She does not release her grip around his neck, but the tight squeeze of her legs relaxes. It is a relief; his ribs have healed crookedly.

He wonders how to begin. Words that would comfort a Vulcan child would not do the same for a human. He is certain of this, if only from interaction with his colleagues and neighbors.

In the face of this uncertainty he says nothing. They sit together.

"I will not leave you," he says at last. Perhaps it is too firm a statement. Logically, there will be times when he must leave her. A time may come that he will not have the choice. "If at all possible, I will stay with you. If I must depart from you temporarily, I will return as quickly as I am able."

"Bobby wasn't supposed to leave," Komihn-kan said quietly. "He said, 'Don't be scared Sarah, I'm not going anywhere'. Then he left."

"Your brother was very ill," Tevek said. "I promised him that I would take care of you. It was his wish that you would always have someone to care for you; that is my wish as well."

There is little more to be said. Tevek tries again to meditate. The child endeavors to mimic him. Her calm is only on the surface, but it is enough for now.

Not long after, a lone Vulcan comes up the hill to join them. He introduces himself as Selek. He had been a researcher here, as Tevek had. Tevek repeats the story he'd given to the city council. He adds to this his encounter with T'Nak, and his certainty that soon her mind and body will break like so many healers he has known. The last death before he left Settlement Thirty had been of their human physician, who had collapsed suddenly in the treatment of his patient. Like the child's brother, Bobby, he hid his ailments from those under his care until it became impossible to continue.

"Tushah nash-veh k'dular," Selek says.

Tevek finds the traditional words comforting. In this, he was not so different from the child.

"I find the path ahead unclear," Tevek says. "I wish to continue my mission. There are many settlements who may be in need of assistance, or people stranded in between who do not know which path is safest."

"I do not believe that is wise," Selek says. "The logic that brought you here was flawed."

"Perhaps," Tevek agrees.

Selek asks after the child’s name, and Tevek prompts her to respond. She does not. Instead, she tells Selek to live long and prosper.

"That is an appropriate greeting, and well said."

"I have been referring to her as Komihn-kan, but I have reason to believe her name is Sarah."

"Komihn-kan?" Selek repeats, one eyebrow raised. "I suppose it is appropriate." To the child he says, "If it is what you prefer, I will call you Komihn-kan as well."

Later, Selek explains that he is well acquainted with humans. He is elderly; before retiring here he spent time in Starfleet and in the Federation ambassadorial corps.

"Though I had not anticipated this disaster."

"Without knowing the source of the problem, it is difficult to say if it might have been predicted."

"This is true." A pause. "Komihn-kan, the consumption of 'greens' is necessary for optimal growth."

Komihn-kan pushes the food items in question to one corner of her tray.

"It is unwise to be wasteful," Tevek tells her. It would be useful to remain and learn more of human nutritional requirements. Still, what he told Selek remains true: he could be of use elsewhere.

Komihn-kan wastes time entertaining herself with her food; Tevek had thought that this was a necessary part of her dining experience, but Selek gently suggests she cease. Were he to remain here, Tevek could gain a great deal of knowledge to improve Komihn-kan's care.

To leave or to remain. Both desires seem rooted in emotion rather than logic. The indecision hurts, though it defies logic that it should.

"Are you going to come with us?" Komihn-kan asks. "We're helping people. We gotta do a lot of walking."

"I will consider it," Selek says. "I suggest we meditate on our options together."


End file.
